Season’s greetings!
Jack Frost still nips but spring’s here and potatoes are going in
Spring has sprung! With the clocks about to move forward, it’s official. But did no one tell Jack Frost of this event? He’s been about bright and early sprinkling the grass with shining ice crystals, glistening in the cool morning sun. The birds were pecking frantically at the solid ice on the water of my bird bath. Yet it has actually been so very dry. It seems only a few weeks ago I was up to my knees in mud and now the allotments resemble the Sahara desert!
A cold, dry north westerly wind has blown down the valley all of last week and I was blessed with many hours of sunshine. The large sods of soil have dried out and crumbled and there’s a dusty appearance to my plot. Well they say the March winds will blow! I’m busy putting up cloches all around the plot to start to warm the very cold soil as I’ve many plants growing strongly in the greenhouse, just waiting for the opportunity to be out in the fresh open air.
There is, however, one crop that can be planted on a frost-free day and that’s my early potatoes. The patch for these was covered for most of autumn and winter with green manures, which were dug back in way back in January. This area was then given a lavish coating of well-rotted horse manure. This has prepared a very rich nutrient area for this greedy vegetable and hopefully will bring forth a bumper crop. So, with my planks in place I fork over this area and work the manure well into the soil.
Age means I no longer dig a trench and place potatoes in and back fill. I now use a trowel and dig a hole about 15cm (6in) deep and place some compost in it to ‘bed’ the sprouting tubers in. These tubers should have some strong green shoots present and these are placed upwards in the hole. I’m growing two varieties of first earlies; ‘Duke of York’ and ‘Rocket’. There are many varieties to choose from so grow the ones that suit your soil type, and are a flavour you like. These are placed about 23cm (9in) apart and the hole filled in. The first earlies should crop in 12 weeks but for the moment I want them growing under the soil and not poking their heads through until Jack Frost has left my valley.
My veg trug grew a fine crop of carrots last season, but this year it’ll be home to parsnips. This is a different crop, albeit a root vegetable, so there’s no need to change the whole of the compost. I dig out about half and spread it over my brassica patch to break up the soil. I lime, then refill the trug with a mixture of compost and mushroom compost. This fine mixture should grow some excellent parsnips in the centre of the trug.